monkeyinabox: look here....or you could just go through life and be happy anyway

I Design, You Pay: That's How It's Supposed To Be

11.10.2005

In reality it's more like I design, and you mightpay when it's convenient. Sucks, but that's how it is. It happens to me on a personal level and it also happens on the professional level through our office. It's not that I think anyone thinks they are going to get something for nothing, but it's more of a mindset that they can put off paying for something as long as possible.

There are plenty of good tips on collecting payments, but what really works best? What about offering rewards, rather than penalties for good paying clients? Typically if you pay for someone on-time you get nothing (except maybe peace of mind), but if you pay late you might get late fees, but sometimes you'll get off paying less simply because the person owed the debt just wants something, rather than nothing. How does a system like this hope to accomplish anything but encouraging the same thing over and over again?

I think the best invoice model I've seen (but not sure where) was one where if you paid within 2 weeks you got a discount, 30-60 days you paid the regular rate, and anything over 60 days occurs a late fee. Simply put, the current system doesn't always work, so something is better than nothing, as long as it's not money owed to me.

I don't think people deserve a discount for paying early or on time. Honestly, they should just be paying on time... but I suppose this is not a perfect world. Perhaps you can ask for payment up front?

my husband got totally screwed by a local magazine for something he did for them. he produced something they used and then turned around and told him it was crap a month later. he wishes he would have gotten a retainer from them before producing the product he did for them. NOW, they're going around time bad mouthing him and they were the ones that contracted him, used it and then decided not to pay him the $1000 he was suppose to get. the thing he did was wonderful and the audience loved it and so did the person he produced it for. damn ppl and their egos.

I have lately been adding a line to my billing agreement that states that usage of the work is contigent on payment. You can word it however you want to but the message is that if you haven't paid me for the work you may not use the work. Payments that used to take 45 to 120 days are now being paid within the month or even sooner.